Andrew McManus

Theory and Composition

Biography

Composer Andrew McManus teaches music theory, history and world music at Saint Xavier
University. His music draws heavily on operatic drama, stylistic reference and noisy
electronic timbres. His orchestral work "Strobe," premiered in June 2014 by the New
York Philharmonic, passes through the idioms of swing jazz not long after distortedly
referencing electronic dance music. His opera "Killing the Goat," describes its Dominican
setting through references to the dance idioms of bachata and merengue as it follows
a woman confronting her traumatic memories of the Trujillo regime. Embers, fused to
ash, for "Alarm Will Sound," amalgamates Richard Wagner's "Magic Fire Music" with
other fire-based imagery. In 2014 he began "Neurosonics," a long-term collaboration
with a University of Chicago neuroscientist, that creates electronic soundscapes using
data from experiments used to study epilepsy. New Music USA funded the project's second
work, which places the Spektral Quartet amidst a sea of occasionally violent artificial
sounds. His other works have been performed at the Aspen Music Festival and School,
Bowdoin International Music Festival, Wellesley Composers Conference and the Minnesota
Orchestra Composer Institute. He holds degrees from the University of Chicago, Eastman
School of Music and Yale University.